Manifest
by vernajast
Summary: Some things are meant to be. Broth and noodles, for instance. Or...Naruto and Sasuke? Not that they would ever admit it out loud. Fluffy drabbles and shorts from the Ninjaverse. NaruSasu, SasuNaru, switches.
1. manifest

_Pre-timeskip Sasuke and Naruto_

_**

* * *

**_

**"Manifest"  
****by vernajast**

_sasuke x naruto_

**(**_**some things are just meant to be**_**)**

They have never talked about it.

Not once.

Not in the darkness of one of the many shared rooms in one of the many inns in one of the many towns...countries they stayed in together on any of their many missions.

And not in the light of day; especially not then.

But they've found that, in the heavy blackness of night...

...in the quiet that accompanies subtle shifting of a body across a creaky bed to get closer, somehow closer, to another body lying just a few inches away...

...in the background sound of panting as hands fumble in their inexperience, grasping and fisting and pounding until their gasps are the only sounds and their ears are filled with passion...

...in the awkwardness of finding comfort against the shoulder of an enemy-sometimes friend-who fitfully trembles beneath gentle touch, shuddering, choking on a sob, and then wetting golden hair with silent, burning tears...

...they've found that they don't even need words.


	2. cream

**cream  
by vernajast**

_naruto x sasuke x naruto_

**_(and then there's you)_**

_...good morning..._

You're always quietest in the morning when your hands are moving across my body, carefully clearing away the mess you made of me in the night. You trail glowing fingertips across my neck, far gentler than anyone would ever suspect, and the evidence vanishes too easily.

It's like this because I _still remember_, and the weight of your sincerity is heavy and lurid in my chest, is like _dying_. I know that it's fear-of your love, of your disappointment. I fear the day you change your mind.

It's like this, only not, when I think too much. You accuse me of just that before yawning and muttering incoherent promises into my skin, and how am I supposed to say **it** again without sounding like the fool you've reduced me to with a mere grin.

It's like this only...not...when nothing and everything are clear in the way you push up on your hands, lips poking out in a pout, and you bang around my kitchen like it was your own.

I wish it was, and I nearly say as much before stifling the impulse with another flung insult. And then, you're back: two cups, spoons, the bag of marshmallows. And a whipped cream mustache.

_Idiot._

_[ .end ]  
_


	3. cold weather

**cold weather  
****by vernajast**

_little sasuke and naruto_

snow crunches underfoot

large flakes kiss scarred cheeks

a small boy peeks around the corner

mischievous smile

flurries of tossed snow

"Sasuke!"

pale cheeks red with tears

sniffles

"Go away."

hands and arms and thin bodies shuffling close together

"What's wrong? Sasuke!"

"You're loud."

sniffles and a half-hearted elbow to the side

a hug

no questions

this is why they are best friends_  
_


	4. bodies

**bodies  
****by vernajast**

_sasuke x naruto_

One body dodges, the other kicks.

One body sweeps a leg across rough gravel.

The other jumps and slams an elbow against a diaphragm, into the crackle and splinter of ribs, into soft tissue.

One body ignites the air, the other feeds the flames.

Fire and wind, lightning and ugly red chakra that no one ever sees coming, and then there are dozens of bodies...

...but only two remain standing.

One body huffs, trembling hands and bloody tears.

The other is already reaching across the gap between them.

Two bodies find warmth in another's presence, in a shared victory, in the unspoken belief that they are still unstoppable.

One body turns to leave, pauses, and the other waits, breath sliding past parted lips, eyes full and expectant and vulnerable and promising _I'll bring you back._

One body nods slowly and slender pale fingers barely brush scarred cheeks, sure that the other will keep his promise one day.

But not today.

One body disappears in a whirl of smoke and ash and leaves that scatter around the clearing.

The other sighs, rough fingertips rubbing lips that can still feel his gentle, ghostly touch. "Sasuke..."

[ .end ]


	5. victory

_**Warnings:** Violent. Death. Angst. Short._

* * *

**victory  
by vernajast**

_sasuke and itachi_

**_(If I had died, I would have never felt sad at all.)_**

Itachi's blood on Sasuke's cheek is a living metaphor..._no, dead, but..._

It tastes sweet, Itachi's blood.

It tastes like revenge, if revenge were to taste in any way not bitter. Which it can't, and so it doesn't, not really. _Itachi's blood._

Itachi's blood lines Sasuke's mouth and coats his tongue as he carefully-like a cat, _like a snake_-licks it from his own lips. It's running down into his eyes, but _it's okay, aniki, look how strong I got for you!_

If brotherly love had a flavor, perhaps it could have overtaken such bitterness, overshadowed and overcome and overthrown and over...it's over. _Wake up, brother, please, wake up,_ the little boy wants to call out, but he does not. That little boy wants to cry, and perhaps if it wasn't already raining he would, but he does not. That little boy has likely forgotten how; he cried out all of his sorrows long ago.

_I've been good, nii-san, I have!_ His brother is still dead. His parents are still dead. And finally, Sasuke kills that stupid little boy, crushes his spirit, and the rain washes his hands of them all.

_Don't be disappointed, little brother. We all must learn, in time, and come to despise the acerbic taste of victory._

"Victory." Sasuke mouths the word in the slick red rain.

[ . end ]


End file.
